I feel like we don't praise SS enough for how they handled YSA's character.
Sure her role kinda falls off in the later chapters but her character arcs are *chefs kiss*
She was initially introduced as a potential love interest like in most action/fantasy novels but then she was just a friend, a co-worker that turned into a friend and their dynamics as a co-worker is something unique to both of them, and for a while it's what kept both of them sane and in that moment they knew each other the best. And honestly the whole library scene could've been a perfect set up for sangah getting a tragic ending, ik it was probably always meant to be that kdj got such a "tragic ending" (only talking abt the inital ending cuz i believe he comes back in the epilogue but anyways) due to the amount of foreshadowing the novel has, but like in another novel both of them couldve met a tragic demise or sangah honestly could've sacrificed herself for him if it was written by any other author where orv has a romance as a subgenre.
But because SS wrote ORV the way they did, she doesn't get a tragic ending, her tragedies weren't just for the sake of being tragic that most writers usually give to characters that were introduced as "a nice person". Her tragedies were more due to how her potential is constantly hindered, her tragedies isn't just for the sake of tragedy but because the system itself is inherently gruesome.
It was never about how she had to toughen up or admonish all her morals, it was never about her, her femininity, her talents. It was about how she was constantly undermined by the people around her and how it's incredibly harder to maintain that sense of self under a cruel system. But she did anyways because SS wrote her with such nuance. They easily could've gone the typical nice girl to girlboss route and it would've been fine with how they write female characters. But subversing a subversion makes her so much moreee complex. I love her
